This prominent millionaire told us Britain has to raise taxes to 70% and stop funding the NHS if it wants to phase out coal power

Alexander
Temerko is a prominent Ukrainian-born businessman in the energy
sector.OGN Group

Alexander Temerko – one of the biggest supporters of Britain's
Conservative government and one of the biggest names in the UK
oil and gas industry – just slammed Whitehall's
latest move in the energy sector as "unprofessional,
immature, and a PR illusion."

In an exclusive interview with Business Insider, Ukrainian-born
millionaire Temerko slammed the announcement as "a big mistake."

"We are tackling a legacy of under-investment and ageing power
stations which we need to replace with alternatives that are
reliable, good value for money and help to reduce emissions,"
said Rudd in her speech.

But Temerko, who is the deputy chairman of the OGN Group which
provides construction services for the oil and gas industry and
is one of the Conservative party's biggest donors, said the
announcement showed Rudd and Chancellor George Osborne's
"detachment from reality."

"To be honest, I am not surprised but I am disappointed in the
speech. I expected more professionalism and equality when it came
to dealing with energy. The government has also scrapped
renewable energy subsidies and now with phasing out coal plants
in 10 years, it's just going to create more problems," said
Temerko to Business Insider.

"We have a lot of serious problems in the energy sector in
Britain. We have oil and gas production issues, we have a lack of
electricity capacity, National Grid's infrastructure and
capability is like that of the 1980s and is not in the 21st
century – it's not fit for purpose. It's creating a massive
problem and we have the potential for lots of black outs."

Britain's Energy Secretary
Amber Rudd.Reuters

Temerko is a member of the British Conservative Party, where
he is a member of the Leader's Group. He is also
a major donor to the Tories and has given around
£500,000 of his own money to the party. His total net worth was
not confirmed to Business Insider.

He has long argued that the National Grid has essentially failed
British households and industry by not future-proofing the
UK power grid.

As a result, the country faces the highest risk of blackouts in a
decade this winter and Rudd's new announcement will place
further pressure on the already strained electricity grid.

"I am not sure where the government is going to get the
money from to make this happen. Coal supplies around a third of
Britain's electricity and if you say, 'OK, we want to substitute
this in 10 years' time' this will still mean you have to get the
investment from somewhere and start building straight away," said
Temerko.

"We import 50% of our gas from overseas already, if the
government want this to work it needs to double gas production in
the UK or build 12-15 LNG terminals across the country. This will
cost around £70 billion or more."

Britain is on the verge of an energy crisis

Temerko's concerns are supported by the Centre for Policy Studies
which said in a report recently that Britain is on the verge of
an energy crisis. Tony Lodge, one of the report's authors, said
electricity demand will outstrip supply and "we could be in real
trouble in 18 months."

"The main point is for the government is that it wants to do
something but doesn't have a money programme to fund it," said
Temerko. "An electricity shortage is a huge problem for Britain
and if the government plan to build one million houses over the
next five years, at the same time as phasing out coal, I can
guarantee there won't be any electricity to power these houses."

"And where are they going to get investment from? Investors from
India and China are practical and cynical and why will they
invest when there are all these changes. The only way is to
increase tax by 70-80% or stop financing the NHS. The speech was
a bad signal and negative."

"The cost of expanding our nuclear power would be even more than
for gas and would deliver nothing like the capacity. Rudd today
admitted that the challenge for nuclear is to make it
low-cost, but again she didn’t talk numbers," said Temerko.
"The total cost of Hinkley C looks set to come to £27 billion –
for a capacity of 3.2GW that won’t be available until 2025."

"This is madness, not least as when it does come online we are
committed to pay EDF and CGN for electricity at more than twice
the current wholesale price. Amber Rudd is proposing a ‘fleet’ of
such stations – we can only imagine what the overall cost of this
might be."